A hostage-taking took place in the health unit of the Arles central house this Friday, January 3 around 10:15 a.m., in Bouches-du-Rhône, according to police sources atAFP. Five people were held hostage by a detainee before one of them, a doctor, was released early in the afternoon, theAFP police and prison sources.
The individual went to the police without causing any injuries, according to the news agency. Information confirmed by the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin. All the hostages have been released.
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Aged 37, this inmate of Guyanese nationality equipped with a homemade pick was holding four nursing staff and a prison guard, according to these sources. The man does not present “not a terrorist profile”, underlined a prison source.
Once the detainee was arrested, the police prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône, Pierre-Édouard Colliex, as well as the public prosecutor of Tarascon, Laurent Gumbau, gave a press conference. “The hostage taker had a fairly inconsistent attitude. He expressed his wish to get out of prison », declared the police chief in front of the cameras of BFMTV.
Laurent Gumbau returned to the profile psychiatric assessment of the detainee, first described as unstable, explaining that he did not seem to have had “psychotic elements” in the hostage taker’s move to action.
He says he wants to “change prison centers”
Unfavorably known to the police and the justice system for numerous common law offenses, he was serving his 18-year prison sentence for rape at gunpoint. He was due to regain his freedom in 2031. His action in Arles prison seems to have been motivated by his “wish to change establishment”, Laurent Gumbau. However, “there was no official request to the penitentiary establishment”, only a verbal request.
Several intervention forces were deployed on site, awaiting the intervention of regional intervention and security teams, according to Provence. The Raid was also activated by the Bouches-du-Rhône police prefect. “We have mobilized all means” to put an end to the hostage-taking, the Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin had indicated on X in the morning.
